The Impact of Family Violence Claims on Divorce and Child Custody

Divorce and child custody include a variety of severe issues that must be taken into account. Whether there has been familial violence is one of these concerns. A parent might not be granted custody if they have a history of abusing the other parent or the child. He or she might even struggle to obtain unsupervised visitation rights because family violence is taken into consideration when determining child custody. When a couple filing for divorce has children, the divorce process may vary if they allege family violence.

Family violence allegations are not "beyond a reasonable doubt" in these situations. Instead, the court need only consider the preponderance of the evidence to conclude that there has been domestic violence. A preponderance of the evidence only requires a certainty level of 51%, whereas beyond a reasonable doubt requires 99% certainty. Furthermore, family violence need not result in a criminal conviction for it to be taken seriously in a divorce or child custody dispute. Even if the violence did not occur, some people will make up this kind of claim of violence in an effort to gain custody.

If you are found to have engaged in family violence, you will only be given restricted visitation. Additionally, your divorce settlement's property division may be impacted. To lessen the risk to the other parent and the kid, the court system is very careful to err on the side of prudence. The accused parent may be surprised to learn that protective orders and other restrictions are routinely given in situations where there has been alleged family violence. It just takes a small amount of evidence to satisfy that bar because the court has defined family violence as something as straightforward as ripping something out of the other parent's hands.

Even if the act was extremely small, anyone who has been found guilty of family violence may experience long-term stigma, at least in the eyes of the court. Once family violence has been reported and proven to be true by the court, it is not something that a person can simply "get out of." Unfortunately, a lot of people say this to gain an advantage in a divorce or child custody dispute.